The present disclosure relates to a pharmaceutical composition and a treatment method using eslicarbazepine acetate.
Epilepsy, pain conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, and affective brain disorders such as bipolar disorder are commonly treated with carbamazepine. Treatment with carbamazepine, however, can lead to serious side effects due to the production of toxic metabolites. Oxcarbazepine was developed to reduce the severity of those side effects, but oxcarbazepine has a greatly reduced potency. See, e.g., Almeida, L. & Soares-da-Silva, P., “Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetic Profile of BIA 2-093, a Novel Putative Antiepileptic, in a Rising Multiple-Dose Study in Young Healthy Humans,” J. Clin. Pharmacol., 44, 906-918 (2004) (herein referred to as “Almeida I”).
Thus, there is a need for a pharmaceutical composition and method for treating various conditions or diseases such as, for example, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia, and affective brain disorders, that has a high potency and a low occurrence of side effects.